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[Tim]

Is there a cheap easy way to create a complete image of a computers hard drive before a reformat?

I have a few older laptops that suck and the easiest way I see to make them useable is reformat and be done.  I just reformatted my old retired laptop and it went from complete shit that collected dust to a decent machine that we use at work now.  Problem is there is always something that you don't remember you need until after its gone, and some software may not be easily replaced.

The laptops can't have more than an 80 Gig drive each and I have a 2 Tera usb drive so space shouldn't be an issue.

I was told to use Norton Ghost but reading the manual it looks as if I'd need to buy a license for each computer I would want to create an image of.  Fuck that it would be just as cheap to buy a couple larger hard drives to swap and just stack the originals on a shelf.

[Joseph Davis]

I was told to use Norton Ghost but reading the manual it looks as if I'd need to buy a license for each computer I would want to create an image of. 

That remotely concerns you?


If you're just worried about data, not the whole registry/install affair, then you can get USB-->IDE or USB-->SATA cheaply.  Remove the hard drive from the laptop, plug into your desktop/archive machine, and drag/drop all directories in Windows Exploder.

[Ntrain2k]

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

[Tim]

If you're just worried about data, not the whole registry/install affair, then you can get USB-->IDE or USB-->SATA cheaply.  Remove the hard drive from the laptop, plug into your desktop/archive machine, and drag/drop all directories in Windows Exploder.

is it possible to get the whole registry/install info?  Most of the data i'm sure we have backed up but some of the software especially the accounting stuff we still occationally find a database or something that was squirreled on an old laptops C that didn't get backed up and we need to go get it.  Maybe what I'm looking for isn't possible, or an image isn't what I was told it is.

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

I'll look into it thanks.

[Joseph Davis]

If you're just worried about data, not the whole registry/install affair, then you can get USB-->IDE or USB-->SATA cheaply.  Remove the hard drive from the laptop, plug into your desktop/archive machine, and drag/drop all directories in Windows Exploder.

is it possible to get the whole registry/install info?  Most of the data i'm sure we have backed up but some of the software especially the accounting stuff we still occationally find a database or something that was squirreled on an old laptops C that didn't get backed up and we need to go get it.  Maybe what I'm looking for isn't possible, or an image isn't what I was told it is.

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

I'll look into it thanks.

You can export the registry and install it on another machine, clone the hive files, sure.  Easiest to use with the least fucking around is make a HD image like you've been talking about.

[Kain]

dd for windows. be very careful though.

[HiProfile]

Drag&Drop will work if you hook the lappy drive to another PC. Fille access limitations will own you, along with a million "do you really want to copy" prompts. You also waste tons of space.

I use Acronis software and it will copy anything. Restoring it is also easy as hell, and very fast. You can select everything, system files, or non-system files (user's shit). It also compresses it so you get the smallest possible size. The downside is it must be installed on a PC in order to view files within that image file. It doesn't have to uncompress it, as it does it all on the fly.

[bigdaddyvtec]

I like Ghost but im really familiar with it.

[n2o_2k]

Clonezilla live - almost like Ghost if not better since it's free and does a good job.

[Jorsher]

If you're trying to backup data -- fuck an image.  Drag and drop everything from every folder except Windows and be done with it.

Image is only useful if you have a customized fresh Windows installation that you want to easily reinstall (with all apps installed, settings how you want, etc) or if you're doing a large PC deployment.

Image for setting up PCs with the same software setup.

Copy/paste for file backups.

/thread

[HiProfile]

If you're trying to backup data -- fuck an image.  Drag and drop everything from every folder except Windows and be done with it.

Image is only useful if you have a customized fresh Windows installation that you want to easily reinstall (with all apps installed, settings how you want, etc) or if you're doing a large PC deployment.

Image for setting up PCs with the same software setup.

Copy/paste for file backups.

/thread

you've never tried a compressed image I'd bet. With multiple gigs and thousands of small files...it's freakishly faster. Even if you don't have a quadcore like me, you can still run with less compression to gain speed. Acronis is the only app that has put all 4 cores at 100% usage before.